Saddam Hussein | Biography & Facts | Britannica.com Saddam Hussein, also spelled Ṣaddām Ḥusayn, in full Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti (born April 28, 1937, Al-ʿAwjah, Iraq—died December 30, 2006, Baghdad), president of Iraq (1979–2003) whose brutal rule was marked by costly and unsuccessful wars against neighbouring countries. Saddam Hussein appearing in a courtroom after his capture, Baghdad, Iraq. Karen Ballard/AP Early life Saddam, the son of peasants, was born in a village near the city of Tikrīt in northern Iraq. The area was one of the poorest in the country, and Saddam himself grew up in poverty. His father died before he was born, and he went at an early age to live with an uncle in Baghdad . He joined the Baʿth Party in 1957.

In 1959 he participated in an unsuccessful attempt by Baʿthists to assassinate the Iraqi prime minister , ʿAbd al-Karīm Qāsim ; Saddam was wounded in the attempt and escaped first to Syria and then to Egypt. He attended Cairo Law School (1962–63) and continued his studies at Baghdad Law College after the Baʿthists took power in Iraq in 1963. The Baʿthists were overthrown that same year, however, and Saddam spent several years in prison in Iraq. He escaped, becoming a leader of the Baʿth Party, and was instrumental in the coup that brought the party back to power in 1968. Saddam effectively held power in Iraq along with the head of state , Pres. Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr , and in 1972 he directed the nationalization of Iraq’s oil industry. Presidency Iraq: Iraq under Ṣaddām Ḥussein Saddam began to assert open control of the government in 1979 and became president upon Bakr’s resignation. He then became chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and prime minister, among other positions.

He used an extensive secret-police establishment to suppress any internal opposition to his rule, and he made himself the object of an extensive personality cult among the Iraqi public. His goals as president were to supplant Egypt as leader of the Arab world and to achieve hegemony over the Persian Gulf . Saddam launched an invasion of Iran’s oil fields in September 1980, but the campaign bogged down in a war of attrition . The cost of the war and the interruption of Iraq’s oil exports caused Saddam to scale down his ambitious programs for economic development. The Iran-Iraq War dragged on in a stalemate until 1988, when both countries accepted a cease-fire that ended the fighting. Despite the large foreign debt with which Iraq found itself saddled by war’s end, Saddam continued to build up his armed forces. Saddam Hussein, 1983. EU Considers Rules For Robots In August 1990 the Iraqi army overran neighbouring Kuwait . Saddam apparently intended to use that nation’s vast oil revenues to bolster Iraq’s economy, but his occupation of Kuwait quickly triggered a worldwide trade embargo against Iraq.

He ignored appeals to withdraw his forces from Kuwait, despite the buildup of a large U.S.-led military force in Saudi Arabia and the passage of United Nations (UN) resolutions condemning the occupation and authorizing the use of force to end it. The Persian Gulf War began on January 16, 1991, and ended six weeks later when the allied military coalition drove Iraq’s armies out of Kuwait. Iraq’s crushing defeat triggered internal rebellions by both Shīʿites and Kurds , but Saddam suppressed their uprisings, causing thousands to flee to refugee camps along the country’s northern border. Untold thousands more were murdered, many simply disappearing into the regime’s prisons. As part of the cease-fire agreement with the UN, Iraq was prohibited from producing or possessing chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. Numerous sanctions were leveled on the country pending compliance , and those caused severe disruption of the economy. Saddam’s continued refusal to cooperate with UN arms inspectors led to a four-day air strike by the United States and Great Britain in late 1998 (Operation Desert Fox).

Both countries announced that they would support efforts of the Iraqi opposition to unseat Saddam, whose regime had grown increasingly brutal under UN sanctions, but the Iraqi leader barred UN weapons inspectors from entering his country. In the interim it became clear that Saddam was grooming one of his sons— Uday or Qusay—to succeed him. Both were elevated to senior positions, and both mirrored the brutality of their father. Moreover, Saddam continued to solidify his control at home, while he struck a profoundly defiant and anti-American stance in his rhetoric . Though increasingly feared at home, Saddam was viewed by many in the Arab world as the only regional leader willing to stand up to what they saw as American aggression. Thirty-foot- (9-metre-) tall bronze sculptures of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, on the … Jim Gordon, CIV/U.S. Department of Defense Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies In the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, the U.S. government, asserting that Saddam might provide terrorist groups with chemical or biological weapons, sought to renew the disarmament process.

Though Saddam allowed UN weapons inspectors to return to Iraq in November 2002, his failure to cooperate fully with the investigations frustrated the United States and Great Britain and led them to declare an end to diplomacy. On March 17, 2003, U.S. Pres. George W. Bush ordered Saddam to step down from office and leave Iraq within 48 hours or face war; he also indicated that, even if Saddam left the country, U.S. forces might be needed to stabilize the new government and search for weapons of mass destruction. When Saddam refused to leave, U.S. and allied forces launched an attack on Iraq on March 20. Structures of Government: Fact or Fiction? The opening salvo of the Iraq War was an assault by U.S. aircraft on a bunker complex in which Saddam was thought to be meeting with subordinates. Although the attack failed to kill the Iraqi leader, subsequent attacks directed against Saddam made it clear that eliminating him was a major goal of the invasion. Always obstinate in his tone, Saddam exhorted Iraqis to lay down their lives to stop U.S.

and British forces, but resistance to the invasion soon crumbled, and on April 9, the day Baghdad fell to U.S. soldiers, Saddam fled into hiding. He took with him the bulk of the national treasury and was initially able to evade capture by U.S. troops. His sons, Uday and Qusay, were cornered and killed in Mosul on July 22, but it was not until December 13 that Saddam was finally captured. The once dapper leader was pulled, disheveled and dirty, from a small underground hiding place near a farmhouse in the vicinity of Tikrīt . Although he was armed, Saddam surrendered to U.S. soldiers without firing a shot. Saddam Hussein following his capture by U.S. forces in Tikrīt, Iraq, December 14, 2003. U.S. Department of Defense Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest In October 2005 Saddam went on trial before the Iraqi High Tribunal, a panel court established to try officials of the former Iraqi government.

He and several codefendants were charged with the killing of 148 townspeople in Al-Dujayl, a mainly Shīʿite town, in 1982. Throughout the nine-month trial, Saddam interrupted the proceedings with angry outbursts, claiming that the tribunal was a sham and that U.S. interests were behind it. The tribunal finally adjourned in July 2006 and handed down its verdicts in November. Saddam was convicted of crimes against humanity—including willful killing, illegal imprisonment, deportation, and torture—and was sentenced to death by hanging . Saddam’s half brother (an intelligence officer) and Iraq’s former chief judge were also sentenced to death. Days after an Iraqi court upheld his sentence in December 2006, Saddam was executed. Saddam Hussein appearing in a Baghdad courtroom, 2004. U.S. Department of Defense Saddam Hussein - Biography of the Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein Dictator of Iraq From 1979 to 2003 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein smiles January 1, 2001 while attending a military show in Baghdad, Iraq.

(Photo by Newsmakers/Getty Images) Updated July 01, 2016. Who Was Saddam Hussein? Saddam Hussein was the ruthless dictator of Iraq from 1979 until 2003. He was the adversary of the United States during the Persian Gulf War and found himself once again at odds with the U.S. in 2003 during the Iraq War. Captured by U.S. troops, Saddam Hussein was put on trial for crimes against humanity (he killed thousands of his own people) and was ultimately executed on December 30, 2006. Dates: April 28, 1937 -- December 30, 2006 Childhood of Saddam Hussein Saddam, which means "he who confronts," was born in a village called al-Auja, outside of Tikrit in northern Iraq. Either just before or just after his birth, his father disappeared from his life. Some accounts say that his father was killed; others say he abandoned his family. Saddam's mother soon remarried a man who was illiterate, immoral, and brutal.

Saddam hated living with his stepfather and as soon as his uncle Khairullah Tulfah (his mother's brother) was released from prison in 1947, Saddam insisted that he go and live with his uncle. continue reading below our video Overview of the Iraq War Saddam didn't start primary school until he moved in with his uncle at age 10. At age 18, Saddam graduated from primary school and applied to military school. Joining the military had been Saddam's dream and when he wasn't able to pass the entrance exam he was devastated. (Though Saddam was never in the military, he frequently wore military-style outfits later in life.) Saddam then moved to Baghdad and started high school, but he found school boring and enjoyed politics more. Saddam Hussein Enters Politics Saddam's uncle, an ardent Arab nationalist, introduced him to the world of politics. Iraq, which had been a British colony from the end of World War I until 1932, was bubbling with internal power struggles. One of the groups vying for power was the Baath Party, to which Saddam's uncle was a member. In 1957, at age 20, Saddam joined the Baath Party.

He started out as a low-ranking member of the Party responsible for leading his schoolmates in rioting. However, in 1959, he was chosen to be a member of an assassination squad. On October 7, 1959, Saddam and others attempted, but failed, to assassinate the prime minister. Wanted by the Iraqi government, Saddam was forced to flee. He lived in exile in Syria for three months and then moved to Egypt where he lived for three years. In 1963, the Baath Party successfully overthrew the government and took power which allowed Saddam to return to Iraq from exile. While home, he married his cousin, Sajida Tulfah. However, the Baath Party was overthrown after only nine months in power and Saddam was arrested in 1964 after another coup attempt. He spent 18 months in prison, where he was tortured, before he escaped in July 1966. During the next two years Saddam became an important leader within the Baath Party. In July 1968, when the Baath Party again gained power, Saddam was made vice-president. Over the next decade, Saddam became increasingly powerful.

On July 16, 1979, the president of Iraq resigned and Saddam officially took the position. The Dictator of Iraq Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq with a brutal hand. He used fear and terror to stay in power. From 1980 to 1988, Saddam led Iraq in a war against Iran which ended in a stalemate. Also during the 1980s, Saddam used chemical weapons against Kurds within Iraq, including gassing the Kurdish town of Halabja which killed 5,000 in March 1988. In 1990, Saddam ordered Iraqi troops to take the country of Kuwait. In response, the United States defended Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War . On March 19, 2003, the United States attacked Iraq. During the fighting, Saddam fled Baghdad. On December 13, 2003, U.S. forces found Saddam Hussein hiding in a hole in al-Dwar, near Tikrit. Trial and Execution of Saddam Hussein After a trial, Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death for his crimes . On December 30, 2006, Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging.

Saddam Hussein Biography - life, family, childhood, children, story, history, wife, school, mother, young Saddam Hussein Biography City vs City: Compare cities in the U.S. by population, crime, education and other data. Compare: April 28, 1937 • Tikrit, Iraq Former president of Iraq Hussein, Saddam. AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission. Beginning in the 1970s, Saddam Hussein ruled the Republic of Iraq with a tight grip. His supporters maintained that through his many social and economic programs he effectively brought the country into the modern age. His many critics, however, claimed that Saddam was a ruthless dictator who would stop at nothing in his endless push for power. Regardless, the charismatic leader retained control of his country during countless military conflicts, including an eight-year war against Iran in the 1980s and the Persian Gulf War in 1991. He also survived a slew of assassination attempts throughout the course of his presidency, and at times he seemed almost invincible. But in March of 2003, U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq and deposed the defiant leader.

Saddam escaped capture, but after a nine-month manhunt, he was caught, imprisoned, and faced multiple charges relating to war crimes and human rights abuses. Many speculated that the once-invincible ruler would ultimately face the death penalty. A troubled beginning The ex-president of Iraq had a troubled childhood. Saddam Hussein was born on April 28, 1937, in the village of Al-Awja, near Tikrit, a town just north of the city of Baghdad, in central Iraq. His father, Hussein 'Abd al-Majid, was a peasant sheepherder who by various accounts either died or disappeared before his son's birth. His older brother, who was twelve, died of cancer shortly thereafter. The combined tragedies had a devastating effect on Saddam's mother, Subha Tulfah al-Mussallat, who became extremely depressed during her last months of pregnancy. After her new son was born, she named him Saddam, which means "one who confronts" or "the stubborn one." Because of her depression, however, she was unable to care for him, and young Saddam was sent to live in Baghdad with his uncle, Khairallah Talfah, a retired army officer and Arab nationalist.

"We are ready to sacrifice our souls, our children, and our families so as not to give up Iraq. We say this so no one will think that America is capable of breaking the will of the Iraqis with its weapons." When he was three years old Saddam returned to live with his mother, but she had remarried and family life was not pleasant. His new stepfather was abusive and treated him harshly over the next several years. As a result, when he was ten years old Saddam ran away to the safety of his uncle's home. Khairallah Talfah served as a role model for his nephew, especially influencing his political beliefs. After Saddam graduated from the al-Karh Secondary School in Baghdad, he officially joined his uncle's political party, the Arab Baa'th Socialist Party, which had been formed in Syria in 1947 with the goal of promoting unity among the various Arab states in the Middle East. In Iraq and neighboring countries the Baa'th Party had become an underground revolutionary force. In 1959, when Saddam was just twenty-two years old, he played a major part in the assassination attempt of Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim by the Baa'th Party.

He was shot in the leg but managed to escape, first to Syria and then to Cairo, Egypt. While in Egypt he studied law at the University of Cairo. In 1963, after a military overthrow of Qassim's government, Saddam was allowed to return to Iraq. That same year he married his first wife, Sajida, the daughter of his mentor, Khairallah Talfah. His return was short-lived, however, since internal squabbling within the new Baa'th regime led to its downfall. Once again Saddam was forced into hiding, but he was caught in 1964 and imprisoned for the next two years. Although in jail, he remained involved in party politics. Escaping from prison in 1966, Saddam became a rising star in the Baa'th organization, forming close ties with key party officials who were planning a second attempt at taking control of Iraq. In July of 1968 the Baa'ths organized a successful takeover of the Iraqi government.

Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, a retired general and prominent party spokesman who was a distant relative of Saddam, assumed the role of chairman of the Baa'th Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) as well as the presidency of Iraq. Saddam, who had become an integral part of the organization, was named vice president. Second in command Although Ahmed Hassan was officially the president of Iraq from 1969 through 1979, it was Saddam Hussein who truly held the reins. And thanks to Saddam, the country enjoyed its most stable and productive period in recent history. After oil prices soared in the 1970s (oil is Iraq's primary natural resource and export), he used the revenues to institute a major system of economic reform and launched an array of wide-ranging social programs. Roads were paved, hospitals and schools were built, and various types of industry, such as mining, were expanded. In particular, Saddam focused attention on the rural areas, where roughly two-thirds of the population lived. Land was brought under the control of the Iraqi government, which meant that large properties were broken up and parcels distributed to small farmers. Saddam also funneled revenues into modernizing the country's agriculture industry.

For example, he brought electricity into even some of the most remote communities. Saddam's social programs benefited both rural and city dwellers. In an effort to wipe out illiteracy, he established free schooling for children through high school and made it a government requirement that all children attend school. Saddam's government also provided free hospitalization to all Iraqis and gave full economic support to families of Iraqi soldiers. Such large-scale social programs were unheard of in any other Middle Eastern country. When he created his massive reforms, Saddam may have had the benefit of his people in mind, but he was also a shrewd politician. In order to maintain a stable government and to assure that his party would remain in power, it was necessary to gather as much support as possible. By the late 1970s the Baa'th regime enjoyed a widespread following among the working classes, and the party was firmly unified around its second-in-command. Saddam also served as the outward face of the Iraqi government, representing the nation on both the domestic and international fronts.

On July 22, 1979, when an ailing Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr decided to step down as president, it came as no surprise that Saddam Hussein stepped into his shoes. The cult of Saddam Hussein Support for Saddam Hussein was not universal. The conservative followers of Islam (the national religion of Iraq) did not agree with many of Saddam's innovations, which they felt were directly opposed to Islamic law. This included legislation that gave women more freedoms and the fact that a Western-style legal system had been installed. As a result, Iraq became the only Arab country not ruled by the laws of Islam. Major opposition also came from the Kurds who occupied the northern region of the country. The Kurds are a nomadic people who are concentrated in areas of Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. They are Muslim but not Arabic, and they strongly disagreed with the Baa'thist push for a united Arab front. Saddam even faced resistance within his own party, and he made it a policy to weed out anyone he viewed as a threat.

On July 22, 1979, just days after taking over the presidency, he organized an assembly of Baa'th leaders and read aloud the names of suspected spies; these people were taken from the room and publicly executed by firing squad. A few years later, in 1982, he ordered the execution of Tiled portrait of Saddam Hussein in Tikrit, Iraq. Many such images and statues of Hussein appeared in cities throughout Iraq. © Shepard Sherbell/Corbis. at least three hundred officers who had supposedly questioned his military tactics. Once in control, Saddam surrounded himself with a tightly-knit group of family and friends who assumed high levels of responsibility within the government. These individuals, however, were not necessarily immune to Saddam's paranoia. At one point, Adnan Talfah, Saddam's brother-in-law and childhood friend, was killed in a "mysterious" helicopter crash. And in 1996 Saddam had his sons-in-law murdered for being disloyal. Although he ruled with an iron fist, Saddam also was preoccupied with winning the devotion of the Iraqi people. He promoted himself as a hero of the nation who was dedicated to making Iraq the leader of the Arab world.

Images of Saddam were plastered throughout the country. Some of them depicted the ruler as a dedicated Muslim wearing traditional robes and headdress; others featured Saddam in a Western-style business suit, wearing sunglasses and holding a rifle over his head. All were efforts to make a connection at every level of society and to solidify his role as an all-powerful president. Such tactics, however, also solidified his reputation as an insecure and unstable leader. He became known for his paranoia, which was not unjustified, considering he had survived at least seven assassination attempts. As a result he rarely appeared in public. He also slept only a few hours a night, at secret locations, and all of his food was carefully prepared and inspected by official food tasters. Conflicts with Iran and Kuwait Outside of Iraq, especially in the West, Saddam was seen as a dictator whose quest for dominance in the Middle East was viewed with particular concern. In 1980 Saddam proved that such fears were founded when he attacked Iran, an invasion that led to an eight-year bloody conflict. Relations between Iran and Iraq had been deteriorating for years, and came to a head in 1979 when the Ayatollah Khomeini (c.

1900–1989) overthrew the government of Iran during an Islamic uprising. Saddam worried that Khomeini would set his sites on spreading his radical religious rule to the secular (nonreligious) state of Iraq. Disputes over territorial boundaries led to skirmishes throughout late 1979 and into 1980, and on September 22, 1980, Iraqi forces crossed the Iranian border and officially declared war. Over the next eight years, both countries suffered almost irreparable damage, and the healthy economy that Saddam had created during the 1970s was in ruins. Billions of dollars were borrowed from countries such as the United States, Kuwait, the U.S.S.R., and France, to support the war effort. The United States alone gave the Iraqi government nearly $40 billion in food supplies and arms. And both sides suffered a tremendous loss of human life. It is estimated that approximately 1.7 million people were killed during the conflict. In one battle on March 16, 1988, Iraqi troops attacked the Kurdish town of Halabja, using poison nerve gas.

Nearly five thousand people died, most of whom were women and children. Various reports claimed that chemical weapons were used by both Iran and Iraq, but these tactics continued to raise the alarm that Saddam Hussein was a military threat who could not be trusted. In 1989 the war ended in a stalemate, with no side claiming a real victory. Conflicts between Saddam and other nations, however, were just beginning. Faced with the prospect of rebuilding his country, Saddam tried to pressure the neighboring country of Kuwait to forgive the $30 billion loan he had been given. The reason he gave was that the war with Iran had effectively protected Kuwait from an Iranian invasion. Tensions were also sparked between the two countries over territorial boundaries that were especially important because they involved the control of oil reserves in the area. When negotiations failed, Saddam invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990. The unprovoked attack was denounced by governments throughout the world, especially the United States. The administration of Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) in the 1980s may have seen Saddam as a potential ally, but after the invasion of Kuwait, President George H. W.

Bush (1924–) essentially severed all ties between the United States and Saddam Hussein. As a result, when the Iraqi leader refused to leave Kuwait, a combined force of U.S. and United Nations (UN) troops stepped in. Fighting lasted a mere six weeks, but after the Persian Gulf War came to an end, casualties topped over eighty-five thousand. Saddam was successfully evicted from Kuwait, but the tensions were not over. Bush ordered U.S. troops to protect Kuwaiti borders, and in his March of 1991 State of the Union address he told the American people, "We all realize that our responsibility to be the catalyst for peace in the region does not end with the successful conclusion of this war." He called Saddam a brutal dictator "who will do anything, will use any weapon, will commit any outrage, no matter how many innocents suffer." The United States versus Iraq In an effort to control Saddam, the cease-fire agreement drawn up between the United Nations and Iraq required the country to destroy all of its chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons. The agreement also stipulated that Saddam had to let UN inspectors oversee the efforts.

If Iraq did not comply with the agreement, economic sanctions would be imposed, meaning that all trade with the country would be cut off. Throughout the 1990s the Iraqi leader reportedly concealed the manufacture of weapons from inspectors, and the sanctions continued. Cut off from the world, the people of Iraq suffered. Unemployment rose, agricultural production declined, and the majority of the population suffered from severe malnutrition and lack of medical care. There was increased unrest among the many factions in the country, which prompted Saddam to increase his tactics of repression. When George W. Bush became president of the United States in 2001, one of his first acts upon taking office was an attempt to reinstate economic sanctions, which had been lifted by the United Nations in the late 1990s. World opinion opposed the effort as inhumane; the Iraqi people had suffered far too much. Anti-Saddam sentiment only escalated, however, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Although the attacks were never linked to Saddam Hussein, Bush insisted that terrorists armed with Iraqi weapons could at any time target the United States. In his State of the Union address in January of 2002, the U.S.

president called Iraq part of an "axis of evil," and claimed that the country "continue[d] to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror." Time and again Bush publicly accused Saddam of concealing weapons, and by 2002 he threatened to invade Iraq if UN inspectors were not allowed back into the country. Saddam countered that there were no weapons, and opened his doors. Although UN inspectors found nothing, Bush maintained that inspectors had simply not found the well-hidden weapons yet. By early 2003, war with Iraq was looming. In January of 2003 Bush gave Saddam an ultimatum: either totally disarm his country or voluntarily leave Iraq. If neither step was taken, the United States would attack. In February of 2003, in an unprecedented move, Saddam Hussein appeared on television, having agreed to be interviewed by CBS newsman Dan Rather (1931–). The interview was broadcast worldwide, even in Iraq, which meant that the Iraqi people were given a rare glimpse of their reclusive leader who was rarely seen in person.

Saddam accused the Bush administration of being part of a "bandwagon of evil," and continued to insist that Iraq did not have concealed weapons and that it had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks. He also explained that he would not leave Iraq and that Iraqis would fight to protect their country if provoked. "We will die here in Iraq," he told Rather. "We will die in this country and we will maintain our honor." The Saddam regime is toppled Despite massive international opposition, hundreds of thousands of U.S. and British troops stormed Iraq on March 20, 2003. Several air strikes specifically aimed at assassinating Saddam Hussein were unsuccessful, and ground troops pushed through the country, heading toward Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. In early April, just three weeks after the invasion, the Saddam regime was toppled. When Baghdad fell, however, the Iraqi president was nowhere to be found. Saddam managed to elude capture throughout the remainder of the year. Reports of Saddam sightings popped up occasionally, but proved to be false. In addition, audiotapes by the ousted leader were released to Arab television networks. Whether they were truly from Saddam remained in question.

High-ranking members of the Iraqi government were caught one by one, but Saddam remained at the top of the most-wanted list. In July of 2003 his two sons and political heirs, Uday and Qusay, were killed by U.S. forces. It was thought that perhaps Saddam's capture would be imminent, but the elusive leader remained on the run for the next five months. Finally, on December 13, 2003, Saddam Hussein was located just nine miles outside of his hometown of Tikrit, hiding in an underground cavern known as a "spider hole." Disheveled and dirty, with a graying beard and matted hair, he surrendered without resisting. According to commander of U.S. forces Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, as quoted on CNN.com, "He was a tired man. Also, I think, a man resigned to his fate." The deposed leader was taken into custody by U.S. forces and held in Baghdad until June 30, 2004, when he was officially handed over to acting Iraqi government officials. On July 1 he faced his first legal hearing before an Iraqi Special Tribunal.

During the twenty-six minute hearing he was charged with multiple crimes, including the 1988 attack on the Kurdish village of Halabja, the 1991 invasion of Kuwait, and the killings of political and religious leaders during his thirty years in command. Throughout the accusations Saddam remained defiant, claiming that the tribunal was a farce. He also maintained that he was still the true leader of Iraq. "I am Saddam Hussein al-Majid, the President of the Republic of Iraq," he announced, as quoted in England's Guardian. "I am still the president of the republic and the occupation cannot take that away." Following the hearing Saddam remained in custody, where he reportedly spent time writing poetry, reading the Koran (the sacred writings of Islam), and tending to a small garden within the walls of his Baghdad prison. There were also reports that the sixty-seven-year-old former president was in poor health and that perhaps he had suffered a stroke. Such reports were denied by doctors. It seemed that Saddam would be well enough to face his accusers in a trial set to begin in January of 2005. Many speculated on the trial's outcome, but people in Iraq voiced their clear expectations. Shortly after U.S.

forces turned Saddam Hussein over to Iraqi officials, the Iraqi government reinstated the death penalty, which had been temporarily suspended under U.S. occupation. Hamid al-Bayati, the deputy foreign minister of Iraq, was quoted in the Guardian as saying, "Everyone who lost loved ones to Saddam will want to see this." For More Information "Saddam Hussein." In Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2nd ed. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1998. Web Sites McCallester, Matthew. "A Day in the Life of Saddam Hussein." Indian Express (July 27, 2004). (accessed on August 3, 2004). McCarthy, Rory. "I am Saddam Hussein, the President of Iraq." Guardian (England) (July 2, 2004). (accessed on August 3, 2004). "President George H. W. Bush's Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union, January 29, 1991." CSPAN. (accessed on Augst 3, 2004). "President George W.

Bush's State of the Union Address to the Joint Session of Congress, January 29, 2002." CSPAN Web site. (accessed on August 3, 2003). Rather, Dan. "Interview with Saddam Hussein." CBS News (February 24, 2003). (accessed on August 3, 2004). "The Rise and Fall of a Dictator." CNN.com: World (December 14, 2003). (accessed on August 2, 2004). "Saddam Caught Like a Rat in a Hole." CNN.com: World (December 15, 2003). (accessed on August 2, 2003). User Contributions: Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (Created by Ben Andrews, History 135, December 2002) Should the United States or the United Nations have tried to oust Saddam Hussein? Background Saddam Hussein was born in 1937 in the village of Tikrit, Iraq. His father died around the time of his birth. His mother remarried and his stepfather is said to have savagely beat Hussein as a child.

In 1958 Hussein participated in a coup that overthrew the monarchy of Iraq and made Abdul Karim Qasim prime minister. In 1959 he was involved in a failed assassination attempt on Qasim and had to flee Iraq. In 1963, after Qasim was murdered, Hussein returned to Iraq and was named assistant secretary general of the Ba'ath party. Within a few months the Ba’ath party was overthrown. Hussein was sent to prison but escaped after two years. In 1968 the Ba’ath party regained control in a coup that Hussein helped lead. Hussein was named the vice chairman of the ruling Revolutionary Command Council and vice president under General Ahmed Hassan Bakr. In 1979 Hussein became president. Subsequently, he executed hundreds of high ranking party members and army officers who he suspected of being disloyal, beginning a long rein of crimes as Iraq's dictator. Hussein’s brutality and willingness to torture and murder anyone he sees as a threat has earned him the moniker, Butcher of Baghdad.

In 1980 Hussein invaded neighboring Iran starting an eight-year war that ended in a stalemate and left Iraq with a 75 million dollar war debt. In the 1980’s Hussein launched attacks against the Kurds in Northern Iraq. During the campaign Hussein used chemical weapons killing thousands. He also carried out mass summary executions. Tens of thousands of noncombatants disappeared. In 1990 Hussein invaded Kuwait in an attempt to gain control of Kuwait’s oil revenues. The invasion triggered a worldwide trade embargo and Iraq was forced out of Kuwait by United Nations (UN) Coalition forces in the six-week long Gulf War. As a result of the invasion and the Gulf War, the UN passed resolutions including Security Council Resolution 687 that requires the "destruction, removal, or rendering harmless" of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and long range ballistic missiles. The resolution called for this to be done under international monitoring and supervision. This monitoring is commonly referred to as weapons inspections. From 1991 to 1998 Hussein's regime was uncooperative with the weapons inspections. Inspectors were barred from many sites and items were removed from some sites prior to inspectors being allowed admittance.

In one incident in June of 1991, UN inspectors tried to intercept Iraqi vehicles carrying nuclear related equipment. Iraqi personnel fired warning shots in the air to prevent the inspectors from approaching the vehicles. The equipment was later seized and destroyed under international supervision. Finally, in 1998 Hussein suspended all inspections and the UN inspectors left the country. Since that time Hussein has continued manufacturing chemical and biological weapons and has been trying to develop nuclear weapons. Under the threat of a preemptive attack by the United States, Hussein has accepted the terms of a new UN resolution reinitiating the weapons inspections. Recommended Books I Was Saddam's Son (1997) by Latif Yahia For years Yahia was a double for Saddam Hussein’s son, Uday. From that position he witnessed torture and depravity. His book tells the story. Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein (1999) by Andrew Cockburn & Patrick Cockburn This gives the story of Saddam’s rise to power and how he managed to stay in power despite great efforts to oust him. Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge (1999) by Said K. Aburish This is a biography of Saddam.

The author was a journalist in Iraq and an Iraqi government consultant. Saddam's Bombmaker: The Terrifying Inside Story of the Iraqi Nuclear and Biological Weapons Agenda (2000) by Khidhir Hamzah About Iraq’s nuclear and biological weapons agenda by a scientist who worked for Saddam. The Saddam Hussein Reader (2002) by Turi Munthe (Editor) This is a collection of articles and excerpts from books about events over the last few years. The History of Iraq (2002) by Charles Tripp The author analyzes the roots of Islamic law, the negative effects of British imperialism and the emergence of the Ba'ath Party and dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Secrets Of His Life And Leadership - Interview With Said K. Aburish | The Survival Of Saddam | FRONTLINE | PBS WATCH SCHEDULE TOPICS ABOUT FRONTLINE SHOP TEACHER CENTER Why did you decide to spend so many years writing this book about Saddam Hussein? Saddam Hussein is the most methodical Arab leader of the 20th century. He's organized. He's a daydreamer. And also, he had the following. He was popular. But Saddam Hussein is a planner.

And he has affected the Middle East so considerably that we need to understand him. What insights can you give us into understanding him? Well, the first thing to remember is that Saddam Hussein spent 20 years creating a personality, an image for himself. And since the Gulf War, his opponents have done the same -- created a completely different personality, of course. So you have to sift through what Saddam created and what his opponents created to reach the real person. The real person has no ideology whatsoever. That is the most important thing to remember about Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein is into realpolitik. He wanted to take Iraq into the 20th century. But if that meant eliminating 50 percent of the population of Iraq, he was willing to do it. And he had to be the one in charge? Without any doubt. You know during the war with Iran, I remember telling someone Khomeini isn't the only person who talks to God. Saddam Hussein thinks he talks to God. He has a message -- he has to lead Iraq, make it a model for the Arab countries and then attract the rest of the Arab countries and become the sole Arab leader of modern times. Extraordinary willpower? Without any doubt.

Considering his humble background, amazing willpower, amazing focus. Amazing ability to achieve his dreams. There is no stopping the man. He always has things in focus. He never misses a beat. In terms of what the country's all about, and in terms of where his country fits in the whole world. One of the re-occurring things in your book is the idea that he's imposed Stalinism on a tribal society. What do you actually mean by that? Saddam Hussein borrowed from Stalinism. He had his security people trained in Eastern Europe, particularly East Germany. Then he brought them back to Iraq and he taught them how to use the tribal linkage to eliminate people. So whereas they used Stalinist methods to discover people who were opposed to the regime, after that came the tribal factor, when Saddam said "Don't get rid of Abdullah, get rid of his whole family, because one member of his family might assassinate us." And that made it a perfect system for Iraq. It is practically foolproof. Do we know whether or not Saddam has actually studied Stalin's tactics? There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Saddam studied Stalin. Stalin is his hero. Stalin came from a humble background.

Stalin was brought up by his mother. Stalin used thugs. Stalin used the security service. Stalin hated his army. And so does Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein models himself after Stalin more than any other man in history. He has a full library of books about Stalin. He reads about him, and when he was a young man -- even before he attained any measure of power -- he used to wander around the offices of the Ba'ath Party telling people "Wait until I take over this country. I will make a Stalinist state out of it yet." People used to laugh him off. They shouldn't have. It was a very serious proposition indeed. Briefly, what is his background? He was from a very poor family, in a village called Al Awja, which is next to the town of Tikrit. As a young boy he had to steal so his family could eat. He stole eggs, and he stole chicken, things like that. He was illiterate until the age of 10. He heard that his cousin could read and write and demanded that he be afforded the same opportunity.

After that he became a gunman, a thug for the Ba'ath Party and he participated in the assassination attempt on the country's strong man, Gen. Kassem, in 1959. Then he went into exile in Cairo. Came back after the Ba'ath took power and proceeded to organize the party and give it supremacy over the army, which was a very important development. Whatever Saddam Hussein is he is above all an organizer, in a part of the world which hasn't seen much of that. And this is why he -- to use a word that does not fit him -- he actually shines when you compare him with other Arab leaders. For people who don't understand Iraq, how important are family and tribal connections in that society? Family and tribal connections are supreme. They come ahead of ideology. They come ahead of commitment to the nation-state, they come ahead of all commitments. Saddam Hussein realizes that. This is why, at a certain point, he transferred power from the Ba'ath Party, which put him in power, to his family, because he decided that the family can be trusted, but the party cannot be trusted. He weakened the party and strengthened the family, and that is the situation in the country now.

His second son is the head of the dreaded security system. His first son, who was a psychopath, runs all types of committees in the country. His brother is on the security system, his cousins are in key positions in the army. The people who come from Al Awja are in other positions in the army. The people who come from Tikrit, the town near Al Awja, are in other positions. It's a pyramid of relationships, tribal and familial. And this is what he depends on. And, those people are loyal to him, because they believe that if Saddam goes, they will go as well. During the time of that assassination attempt in 1959, when Saddam first leaves the country and goes to Damascus, goes to Cairo, what was the great game being played in the Middle East at that time? The great game played in the Middle East in 1959 was Arab nationalism under Nasser. Nasser wanted to unite the Arab countries into one great one, capable of being completely independent. Most of the Western powers were opposed to that. The Ba'ath Party, to which Saddam belonged, believed in Arab unity as well. The man who ran Iraq, the man Saddam tried to assassinate, Gen.

Abdel Karim Kassem, did not believe in that. And this is why Saddam and his crew tried to kill him. And that is also why once Saddam escaped after the assassination attempt, he found refuge in Cairo, under Nasser's patronage. That was the situation: The Arabs trying to unite; the West, the United States and Britain in particular, were opposed to this unity. While he was in Cairo, there's some belief that he may have had contact with Americans, with the CIA. What can you tell us about that? There is very good reason to believe that Saddam Hussein was in contact with the American embassy in Cairo when he was in exile. This is not strange, because alliances of convenience were taking place every day, and the United States was afraid that Iraq, under Kassem, might be going communist. So was the Ba'ath Party. So they had a common enemy, a common target -- the possibility of a communist take-over of Iraq. So there is a record of Saddam visiting the American embassy frequently, and there is a record of the Egyptian security people telling him not to do that. However, one must remember that at that time, Saddam was a minor official of the Ba'ath Party. He was not terribly important.

And he was really following in the footsteps of other people who are much more important. And what would be the idea behind all this? The visits to the American embassy by Saddam Hussein and other members of the Ba'ath Party had one purpose, and one purpose only: to cooperate with the Americans towards the overthrow of General Kassem in Iraq. Kassem was slightly pro-communist and the Americans wanted to get rid of that danger. Allen Dulles described Iraq as the most dangerous part of the earth in front of a congressional committee. The Ba'ath thought Kassem was their enemy, so there was a mutuality there. And whether a conspiracy transpired or not, the evidence is actually in favor of it having taken place. But the conspiracy was for the duration of getting rid of Kassem. It was not an alliance of permanent nature. There was a coup in Iraq in 1963. What do we know about the U.S. involvement in that coup? The U.S. involvement in the coup against Kassem in Iraq in 1963 was substantial. There is evidence that CIA agents were in touch with army officers who were involved in the coup.

There is evidence that an electronic command center was set up in Kuwait to guide the forces who were fighting Kassem. There is evidence that they supplied the conspirators with lists of people who had to be eliminated immediately in order to ensure success. The relationship between the Americans and the Ba'ath Party at that moment in time was very close indeed. And that continued for some time after the coup. And there was an exchange of information between the two sides. For example it was one of the first times that the United States was able to get certain models of Mig fighters and certain tanks made in the Soviet Union. That was the bribe. That was what the Ba'ath had to offer the United States in return for their help in eliminating Kassem. Do we know to what extent Saddam Hussein was involved in the killings when he came back from Cairo? I have documented over 700 people who were eliminated, mostly on an individual basis, after the 1963 coup. And they were eliminated based on lists supplied by the CIA to the Ba'ath Party. So the CIA and the Ba'ath were in the business of eliminating communists and leftists who were dangerous to the Ba'ath's takeover.

The coup took place in April, Saddam Hussein did not return to Iraq until May. But he went to work immediately. He became an interrogator in the Fellaheen and Muthaqafeen detention camps. They are camps where they kept communists and fellow travellers, after they took power. And in interrogating people in those camps, he used torture, and undoubtedly like everybody else involved in this activity, eliminated people. In 1963 he was still one of the party's toughs, one of the party's thugs, if you wish. Jumping forward a few years to 1967 and the Arab-Israeli conflict, we've heard that the Soviets then looked to Baghdad in terms of gaining influence in the Middle East. And the Ba'ath Party also wants to get back into power. Describe in the run-up to the 1968 coup, the Cold War dynamics of what was going on in the Middle East, and in particular Iraq, and how the Ba'ath Party was able to use those dynamics to help them get back into power. In 1968, Iraq had a weak president who was beholden to Nasser, a follower of Nasser.

But the defeat of [the Arabs by Israel] in 1967 meant that whatever government was in power when that defeat took place had to go. So the Ba'ath saw an opportunity in this and they thought the time has come for them to take over the country again. The background was extremely interesting. There were two things happening within Iraq at that time. They were developing their own oil and very close to giving the concessions for huge new oil fields, to the USSR and France. And the price of sulpher had shot up so greatly that they were about to mine the sulpher mines in the north and sell it in the world market. The United States didn't want either to happen. The United States wanted the oil for American oil companies; they wanted the sulpher for themselves. They thought that if Iraq went to the Soviet Union or France, Iraq would be lost to them. In this they were joined by the Ba'ath Party. The Party used the concessions for oil and sulpher as a bargaining point to endear itself once again to America. And they arrived once again at some kind of an agreement of collaboration between the two sides.

On the American side negotiating for both the oil and sulpher was a well-known personality, Robert Anderson, the former secretary of treasury under Eisenhower. He met secretly with the Ba'ath and they agreed that if they took over power these concessions will be given to the United States. And so once again the United States was in the business of supporting the Ba'ath office for the government of Iraq. The Ba'ath was successful. This time Saddam Hussein played a key role. He was one of the people who donned a military uniform -- though he's not a military man -- and attacked the presidential palace and occupied it. The president, being weak, surrendered immediately. Two weeks after they took over power on the 17th of July 1968, there was what they call "the correction movement." That meant getting rid of the non-Ba'ath elements in the coup, and Saddam was prominent in that.

As a matter of fact he held a gun to the head of the prime minister and said, "You're going with me to the airport because you're leaving this country." And the guy pleaded with him, said, "I have family, I have a wife and kids." And Saddam said, "Well as long as you behave, they'll be fine." He took him to the airport, he put him in a plane, he deported him, and of course years after, he assassinated him in front of the Intercontinental Hotel in London. The man couldn't escape him in the long run. However, the communists are hardly thrown out and not long after, they turn to Saddam, and he personally leads a delegation to Moscow, and there's a development of a relationship between the two. What game was he playing? Well, alliances of convenience don't last very long. The Ba'ath Party was committed to certain things which American foreign policy could not tolerate. In this particular case it lasted a very short time, really a matter of two weeks. And Saddam got rid of all of the pro-American elements in the government and he asserted his authority on the country. He was not the president.

He was the second man, after a relation of his from Tikrit, President Ahmed Bakr. But what happened immediately after that is the things they needed, they couldn't get from the United States anymore. They needed help economically. They needed arms. And the United States were not in the business of openly supplying arms to Arab countries to re-equip themselves for another round of fighting. That was the major issue between the two sides. Saddam knew he could get the arms from Russia and he journeyed to Russia -- this was his first trip outside Iraq, outside of exile of course -- and he got what he wanted. And the alliance of convenience disintegrated as they always do. So, there was a new alliance, this time with the Soviets. In 1972, Iraq and the Soviet Union signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation. They wanted to seal the cooperation taking place between them in a formal alliance. The reason Saddam signed that treaty of friendship and cooperation was because that obligated the local communist party, which was very strong, to cooperate with the Ba'ath Party, which was not so strong at that time.

Of course the Russians loved an opportunity to have a hold on Iraq and they signed the treaty and told the local communist party to join the Iraqi government. That alliance internally did not last very long. But the external one was on and off for a very long time. And the Soviet Union at one point thought Iraq was a more important ally than Egypt. Its army always acquitted itself better than the Egyptian army. It was a wealthy country that didn't need a lot of aid, like Egypt. And it was the gateway to the Gulf, to oil. It represented a more immediate threat to the West's lifeline than Egypt did. So Saddam in the early '70s is Iraq's vice president. Could you describe how he's already setting up a Stalinist system with control of the government. In the early '70s, Saddam started out controlling one small department called the Peasants Department; at that time the Ba'ath regime, for a very brief period of time, was committed to installing a democratic system in Iraq. It was a bit of a dream. Came the time for them to assign the job of head of the security system, and no one from the inner circle wanted the job. Everybody says, "This is a dirty job.

I don't want it." Young Saddam Hussein raised his hand, and said, "I want the job. I'll take over the security system." He took over the security system, called it the Department of General Relations and proceeded to expand it. This was his first step towards attaining power. The president at the time, Ahmed Bakr had been a general, and a very nice man. Quite a religious man too. Saddam was a relation of his. He surrendered everything to Saddam, because Saddam worked an 18-hour day. In no time at all, Saddam was head of security, he was head of the Peasants Department, he was head of relations with the Kurds, he was head of the committee that controlled the oil. He was head of the committee that controlled relations with the Arab countries. He was head of the workers syndicate. There was a conflict between all these departments that Saddam controlled so tightly and the armed forces -- because the armed forces is the one organization capable of overthrowing government. Saddam proceeded to emasculate the army and place his professional soldier relations from Tikrit in key positions. For example, his brother-in-law became chief of staff of the army.

And of course soon enough, like all people who are dictators, who are jealous of the army, he appointed himself general and eventually like Stalin he became field marshal. So much of what you just described certainly has Stalinist overtones. Without any doubt everything Saddam did had Stalinist overtones. In particular, the reliance on the security system rather than the armed forces, the jealousy of the generals in the armed forces, the use of criminal elements within the country, and, incorporating them into the security system. And those people were sort of semi-literate thugs whose loyalty was to Saddam, without whom, they were nothing. And so he brought them in, he depended on them, and they did him service. Anybody he wanted to get rid of he got rid of. And the door was wide open. He had two qualities that put him ahead of his colleagues. His ability to work an 18-hour day. Endlessly. And a sense of organization. You didn't see Saddam at three o'clock and miss that appointment by five minutes. Because Saddam would ask you why you are five minutes late, or five minutes early. If you had an appointment with Saddam at three, you showed up at three. That was that. He is that organized.

He is that methodical. And perhaps another comparison to Stalin is his relationship with Bakr and, Stalin's relationship with Lenin. Without any doubt there are similarities in the careers of Stalin and Saddam. Among other things, the major one is Stalin played second fiddle to Lenin for a long time. And it was then Lenin became very suspicious of Stalin. Saddam did the same thing with Ahmed Hassan Bakr and towards the end, Ahmed Hassan Bakr became very suspicious of Saddam and wanted to get rid of him. But it was too late. By then Saddam was in control of the whole country. And Bakr was shoved aside and replaced. Saddam became president. That is one similarity. The use of criminal elements is key in this. Both of them used them, both of them rotated the heads of the security system because they knew this was the system that controlled the country. So no one could stay in that position for a long time. The longest serving head of security was Saddam's half-brother who was there for eight years. And he eventually was moved into another job by Saddam because he became too powerful. Let's talk about your own personal involvement in the early '70s.

You mentioned Saddam wanted certain things from the Soviet Union, but perhaps he wasn't getting them. Arms -- he wasn't happy with what he was getting. He looked to the West and there was a directive that came out, asking if Iraq was working with the best companies. Could you tell us that story? I became involved with the regime working through a Palestinian group which had set up a consulting company in Beirut. I worked with its successor, Arab Resources Management. And we were in the business of helping the Iraqis realize the huge economic development plans which came very fast as a result of the first oil shock in 1973. In 1976, I received this very short memorandum. It was not addressed to me, it was addressed to one of my colleagues in Beirut and it says -- addressing him by his first name -- "Are the best companies in the world working in Iraq? And if the answer is no, why not?" So my colleague gave me this and he said, "You're a word man, answer him." Of course I prepared an answer, 12 pages long, not as short as his question. And I said basically no, the best companies in the world were not working in Iraq.

The reasons were changes of priorities, bureaucracy, this that, many reasons. But the last reason was that they put politics ahead of competence. They awarded the contracts to companies on the basis of the country's political outlook, rather than because they're the best companies in the world. The memorandum came back from Saddam saying "I agree with everything except this -- everyone in the world does this. But now, your job is to get me the best companies in the world to work in Iraq." And we proceeded to do that. And everybody wanted to work in Iraq. Iraq had oil. Iraq had a population unlike some of the sparsely populated oil producing countries. Iraq had first class technocrats. Iraq had a functioning bureaucracy and Iraq had the plans to develop their country. And he went into developing the country in a very big way. Down-streaming the oil business came first. Reclaiming land for agriculture came after that. Building railroads, building roads. Mining phosphate, mining sulpher. Building even factories to make stone windows. Nothing escaped Saddam Hussein's attention. And he never forgot a thing. And he got the best companies in the world. We got them for him, and he worked with them, and he worked with them very very successfully.

Iraq, soon enough, because of the pace of development in the country, needed labor and they imported 2 million Arab workers from other Arab countries. And through being generous to the Arab workers who came and worked without work permit, went on social security without needing it, and things like that, Saddam was making his first bid towards Arab leadership. That was his first move towards assuming the leadership of the Arab people. Through the workers who came to work in Iraq through during the heydays of OPEC. Why were you working for the regime of Saddam? There is a whole generation of people like me. We are about the same age as Saddam -- I'm two years older actually -- who believe that is where the Arab dream was -- in Iraq. Iraq had wealth, it had population, it had prospects, it had a strong army. They were not backward -- and I will use the word "backward" -- like some of the oil-producing countries. They offered us a future. And we took that chance. We were enamored with what Saddam was doing. Make no mistake about it. Anybody who tells you otherwise didn't know what Saddam was about. He's not telling the truth. We knew Saddam was tough. But the balance was completely different then.

He was also delivering. The Iraqi people were getting a great deal of things that they needed and wanted and he was popular. He eliminated people here and there. With time, as with all dictators, the balance switched. And all we saw of Saddam was elimination and very little benefit to the people. You became aware that he was actually looking to acquire a nuclear capability for a bomb? Saddam started a program to acquire unconventional weapons in 1974 when he was vice president. He formed a committee and called it the Committee for Strategic Development. It was a three-person committee with Saddam as chair. His brother-in-law and chief of staff of the Iraqi army, as a member, and his deputy, Adnan Hamdani, as another member. This committee operated secretly. Even the president didn't know what they were doing. They skimmed off 5 percent of the oil income and used it to acquire unconventional weapon. It was the only thing this committee was doing. Now, to achieve his aim, he needed two things in Iraq. One, money. And there was a great deal of money -- we had the first oil shock and Iraq was getting more money than it was spending.

So 5 percent of the oil income was a great deal of money. He had the money. Then, you needed the human factor -- the scientists and engineers -- and Iraq had a great many of them. But to show you Saddam's brilliance, he added to that by starting a repatriation program of Arab scientists and engineers from all over the world. And I mean Arab, not Iraqi. I'm talking about Egyptians, Palestinians, Moroccans, you name it. He brought them over and he integrated them into his program. With these two things in place and the will to acquire unconventional weapons, there was only one way to stop Saddam. That would have been for the supplier countries who made the equipment, or made the atomic reactors, not to sell them. That did not happen. And to put it in the vernacular -- after that, he was off and running. And you saw up close the willingness of some of these countries and companies to work with him and the willingness of their governments to approve these various exports? Most of Saddam's requests to Western governments were positively received. If there was the occasional no by a government, he went to another place and he got what he wanted. There were no constraints on getting what he wanted.

He got it in time. Time was the only limit to what Saddam was capable of achieving. He got blueprints to help make chemical warfare plans from the United States. Everybody accused the Europeans of that. It was actually an American company and writers in New York would supply him with this blueprints. The U.S. government knew about it. He got offers for fighter bombers from both the U.K. and France. For helicopters, for an atomic reactor from France. For suits against atomic biological and chemical warfare from the U.K. All of these things took place. Nobody basically said no. Saddam was not stopped through any denial of equipment he needed. He was occasionally stopped through policy. But that didn't last long. And what gave the whole program of acquiring unconventional weapons an impetus was in the 1970s. The main aim of the West was to pry Saddam away from Russia. And in order to do that, they were bribing him. They were giving him everything he wanted. In the 1980s, the reasons changed [for helping Saddam]. ... Khomeini appeared on the scene and the West decided that Saddam was the lesser of two evils. And they continued to support him and give him what he wanted.

In this case, including credit. The third phase of this relationship was immediately after the cessation of hostilities in the Iran-Iraq war, when Saddam seemingly came out victorious. All of a sudden he was sitting on top of a million-man tested army, unconventional weapons and he was broke, and restless. He became dangerous. He had to do something in order to survive. This was followed by a series of incidents which led to a crisis, the discovery of the supergun, the discovery of the atomic triggers, Saddam threatening the American fleet in the Gulf, things like that. And the whole thing, of course, culminated in his invasion of Kuwait and we know what followed that. Regarding the building of weapons of mass destruction, when it came to an atomic weapon, why did you still believe that that was okay? I don't think there was any Arab in the '70s who did not want Saddam Hussein to have an atomic weapon. They wanted him to have military parity. Israel had atomic weapons. The Arabs wanted an Arab country to have atomic weapons. Iraq was the head of the pack and therefore all Arabs supported Saddam Hussein.

I have news for you: I don't think there are many Arabs at this moment in time -- you can exclude me out of this statement at this moment in time -- who do not want Saddam Hussein to have an atomic weapon now. They don't look at it as weapons of mass destruction. They look at it as transfer of technology. That the Arabs have done it, the Arabs have joined the modern world. That's the way they see it. And that pleases them. The fact that Saddam Hussein eliminates people, kills innocent men, uses a chemical weapon against his own people, is actually in a way secondary to this image. The Iraqi people are concerned with the latter. They suffer because of the latter. But the Arab people outside of Iraq do not suffer because Saddam Hussein eliminates people, because he doesn't eliminate them. He eliminates Iraqis. So there is a division between the vision of Saddam Hussein that the Iraqis have and the vision of Saddam Hussein the rest of the Arabs have. To the rest of the Arabs, he is the man standing up to West. To the Iraqis, he is the man who dragged us into this state of misery. Unwillingly.

After the revolution Saddam was still vice president and in July of 1979, he makes a visit to Amman. And, at the same time, he meets with CIA agents there. What is he doing? And what are the consequences of this trip? Before starting the war with Iran, Saddam Hussein went on a tour of several Arab countries. His first stop was Amman in Jordan. And there he had two things he did not have in other places: an indirect line to the Americans through King Hussein, who has always been a friend of America, and, the possibility of meeting three senior CIA agents who were there, not to spy on Jordan, but to use Jordan as a listening post for the rest of the Middle East. There is absolutely no doubt that Saddam discussed his plans to invade Iran with King Hussein. There is considerable evidence that he discussed his plans to invade Iran with the CIA agents that King Hussein prevailed on him to meet with. After that he flew to Saudi Arabia and there is a record of him telling King Fahd that he is going to invade Iran, and then after that, I think he had a stop-over in Kuwait and he did the same thing. What the trips did was to guarantee him American support in invading Iran.

Financial support from the oil producing countries after their invasion and a channel to buy arms. One of the great unknowns or perhaps unthought of elements in the war between Iran and Iraq was the people who fronted for them in purchasing arms. Saddam had acceptable countries who fronted for him. Jordan bought arms for Saddam. Jordan is acceptable in the West. Egypt bought arms for Saddam. Egypt was acceptable. Saudi Arabia bought arms for Saddam. Saudi Arabia was acceptable. Iran did not have that advantage. Iran had Syria and Libya to front for it, and neither country was acceptable. So the flow of arms to Iraq was at the much higher scale. And they were more sophisticated stuff. They got more sophisticated pieces of armament than the Iranians. And this is why they prevailed in the end. So you can look at this picture as having begun with this tour that Saddam took immediately before he invaded Iran. He was protecting his back with conservative regimes, with pro-West regimes. He was not protecting his back with the USSR. As a matter of fact the USSR cut off the flow of arms to Iraq once it invaded Iran and Saddam had to rely exclusively on Western armaments for three years until the USSR changed its mind and start selling him again.

They saw that they were losing out in Iraq because the West was willing to give him everything he wanted.

Question: In what year did Saddam Hussein become President of Iraq?
Answer: 1979